When visiting a supermarket have you never wished you had a few garden fruit trees? Have you ever noticed how purchased fruit these days is bit inconsistent in quality? Sometimes it will be fine, but mostly is tasteless, too hard or too soft. The pears are rock hard, you can push your fingers through the plums, and the peaches start growing mould before they are soft enough to eat.

Some of this has to do with forced growing and artificial fertilizers, and some on picking too early, and being left to ripen during shipping. Much of the foreign grown fruit is picked unripened, and then ripened in the ship's hold. This leads to fruit with the taste and texture of wet cardboard. Why not grow your own? It is both cheaper and better for you, and the taste is far superior to anything grown and shipped from thousands of miles away, and fed on who knows what.

Even a small garden can be used for growing fruit trees, and there are apples, peaches, pears, cherries and plums suitable for the smallest garden. And these are just a few of what is available that be grown in shapes suitable for training along fences and walls, and up garden mesh and netting. You don't need a massive orchard for garden fruit trees any more if you know how to train them properly, and what varieties are best for growing in your local conditions.

If your garden is susceptible to early frosts, you should purchase trees that flower later, or you will lose the flowers before they can develop into fruit. Irrespective of your conditions, you should be able to grow a selection of apples, pears, plums and so on and even apricots and peaches if you have a reasonable amount of sun. Even grapes can be grown in temperate climates.

You should buy your stock from a good supplier that knows what you need for the areas in which you live. It is always best to buy local, since if they can grow it then so can you. Many people travel to warmer climates and return with fruit trees that looked great in 35 degrees of sun, but are stunted in your chillier 25 degrees. You should choose a selection of fruits suitable for your climate, and at least two of each. There are some self-pollinating varieties of fruit around, but it is safer to have two trees